Harry F. Rudd Illustration, ca. 1930
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APPRAISER:
Someone in your family was an artist.
GUEST:
Yes, my grandfather.
APPRAISER:
And he's responsible for this artwork that we see in front of us.
GUEST:
Yes, he is, uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
He worked for Saturday Evening Post?
GUEST:
He did one cover for Saturday Evening Post, and he worked for several ad agencies, as far as I'm able to research and find out.
APPRAISER:
Right
GUEST:
Because he died in 1946.
APPRAISER:
Right. And Liberty magazine?
GUEST:
Liberty magazine, and he did a lot of interior ads in Saturday Evening Post, another in Liberty and there's one called Everybody's magazine.
APPRAISER:
Everybody’s is a great magazine.
GUEST:
Where he did illustration for H.G. Wells' The Magic Shop.
APPRAISER:
And he did this cover here.
GUEST:
Yes, Country Home, July 1930.
APPRAISER:
And we happen to have with us, the original artwork.
GUEST:
Yes
APPRAISER:
For that cover.
GUEST:
Mmm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So our major interest here is in the artwork. Because magazines themselves...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Are quite common. Over the last five years, several galleries have sprung up in New York, selling original artwork from illustrators. Now, of course the great names of Rockwell, Leyendecker, they were always valuable. But people like John Dohanos and some of the other illustrators, who were the real workmen, who did the covers week after week and did the ads, their work is now appreciated to a tremendous degree. And there are sit-down auctions of catalogue auctions of this material. And the reason I'm interested in this piece is because it's an example of the kind of original artwork that is now taken seriously by the art community.
GUEST:
Oh, okay
APPRAISER:
Whereas before it was just considered hack commercial work.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Just to give you an example of the way prices have escalated, something like this in one of the auctions or the galleries that I was talking about would sell in the range of $4,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
For one piece of original artwork.
GUEST:
Gosh, I didn't know that.
APPRAISER:
And you're looking at a piece that maybe ten years ago would have been selling under $100.
GUEST:
Oh, you're kidding.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
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